Light and Life: Cellular responses to light | Prof. Keith Kozminski

The Thomistic Institute

Christianity, Society & Culture, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Thomism, Catholicism

4.8 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2024

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Professor Keith Kozminski explains the cellular mechanisms of light interaction, detailing the process of photosynthesis in plant chloroplasts and the conversion of light energy into chemical energy. He then transitions to discussing photoreception in the human eye, describing the structure of the retina and the function of rod and cone cells. The lecture emphasizes the importance of light in biological processes and the complex molecular interactions involved in light sensing and energy conversion.

This lecture was given on July 20th, 2024, at The Dominican House of Studies.

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About the Speaker:

Keith Kozminski is an Associate Professor of Biology and Cell Biology at the University of Virginia, where he studies polarized cell growth, in particular the role of lipid transfer proteins in intracellular membrane trafficking and secretion. In addition, he conducts research in the field of synthetic biology, as applied to health and environmental sustainability. He leads the Mid-Atlantic Synthetic Biology Network comprised of academic, private sector, and government researchers from Georgia to Delaware, in addition to being the senior Features editor of Molecular Biology of the Cell, the research journal of the American Society of Cell Biology. He also co-founded the biotech company Ourobio in 2020.

Dr. Kozminski holds a PhD in Biology (cell biology) from Yale University and completed his post-doctoral training in molecular genetics at UC-Berkeley. He has undergraduate degrees in Biology and History from SUNY-Buffalo.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Tomistic Institute podcast.
0:06.8	Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square.
0:13.1	The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Temistic Institute chapters around the world.
0:19.1	To learn more and to attend these events, visit us at to mystic institute.org.
0:25.1	What I'm going to talk about today is really at the level,
0:29.9	biological, chemical level of organization Matt talked about,
0:33.7	but also bring it a little higher up in the levels of organization.
0:39.1	And I want to talk specifically about how cells are responding to light.
0:44.2	And we can talk a lot about how organisms respond to light, but those responses of organisms
0:50.7	really begin at the cellular level. And just some examples of what light is doing for life, we have to breathe.
1:02.0	Oxygen coming from plants.
1:04.0	That's all a light-dependent reaction.
1:08.0	We have to eat lights necessary to be producing those carbohydrates through the process of photosynthesis, as Matt talked about.
1:17.6	Light is also very potent for affecting our biological rhythms, our circadian clocks.
1:24.6	When we have that good feeling of getting up at 6 a.m.
1:30.5	Or that not so good feeling of getting up at 6 a.m. Those are all light-entrained responses.
1:38.4	And also, light is important for organisms in terms of coloration as a protective feature of an organism,
1:51.2	or the attraction of organisms to each other. So light has many roles in biology, all beginning at the cellular level.
2:04.0	Now, in thinking about this, I tried to put some framework on what's happening with light
2:10.0	when it's encountering cells.
2:12.2	I made up this little chart, and really, when a cell is encountering light, there has to be a chromophore. A
2:20.5	chromophore is normally a small molecule or groups of molecules that can absorb the light. And in many
	...

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